In the early modern period, the experience of satire – of both reading and writing it – was commonly described in bodily terms. Elizabethan satire was no exception and a verse satirist like John Marston could have his persona declare that he “bristle[s] vp with plumes of pride” over critical responses. While theories of humors and passions provided early modern writers had a comprehensive vocabulary for describing the experience of art and literature in physiological terms, satire particularly stands out because the writing and reading of it was commonly referred to in terms of physical immoderation (aggressiveness, but also e.g. sexual pleasure). Stoicism in this regard presented a philosophical corrective to several Elizabethan satirists, but their relation to this tradition was ambivalent at best. What remains clear, and as this paper suggests, criticism of satire needs to be more attentive to the physiological dimension of early modern aesthetic experience. Thus, the paper contributes to how ”affect” and ”embodiment” can be contextualized from the point of view of early modern aesthetic practice.